Have browsed this forum a lot since the public release and there are a lot of repetitive posting. So, as stated in the topic: do a search and see if there already is a similar post.
How fun wouldn’t it be if there already is a post like this one? 
(I didn’t search before posting) I totally understand that searching is forgotten.. hence this little reminder folks!
Happy flying!
Freddy
… and a side note: not happy? Do some research regarding your issues instead of complaining! Users in here don’t need to see every second topic about users uninstalling… couldn’t care less 
Freddy
Maybe users would slowly learn if moderators moved repetitive posts into an appropriate already existing thread. That’s a lot of work in the short term for moderators but if users get the idea, it leads to a better site and far less work for moderators in the long term.
They do though. It’s a volunteer role after all.
I just moved four threads all created within 48 hours, into an existing one within the #self-service:wishlist section a few hours ago.
I work with an amazing team of volunteers, but there aren’t that many of us. To help us out, please report (
) posts you see that violate our code of conduct.
If you want bonus points when creating a topic, try tagging your post, this gives my team one less thing to do.
There is the AI that pops up with a suggestion of similar already existing topics - but the AI doesn’t seem to be very good. Guess you’re limited by what Discourse provides but an improvement there might help along with meta-suggestions, if you could add them, as to why a particular thread is THE thread to post about X, Y, and Z in.
Users are not allowed to define their own tags and it can be tough to find the tag(s) that captures the meaning(s) you want to tag your post with. Since Discourse has the “similar” topic mechanism, I wonder if some of that AI could be repurposed for tagging synonyms? If a user were allowed to start tagging or searching on a tag then maybe from a list of synonyms for the official tag, the tag that the moderators would like to be used for that ballpark of meaning would be the tag that the user is offered as a substitute (and the only one the user is allowed to use).
I think PM’ing @ moderators or whatever would be better than flagging posts that are just in the wrong place. Flagging, if the user notices it in a short time after the flag before it’s evident that the purpose was to move the post, might arouse the user’s ire (unless the FLAG has an obvious message like “DUPLICATE THREAD?” associated with it). I think users will be a lot more accepting if there were a mechanism to just quietly move a post or a thread and then whoever is affected gets an alert in their notification list that their post has been moved by a moderator-on another Discourse forum, it just shows up as an EDIT by the moderator. So it allows the user to feel the presence and the power of the moderator without directing engaging the user over the matter that is going to be a fait accompli, anyway.
I realize your limited by the backbone Discourse provides. My motto has always been “it never hurts (too much) to ask!”
That was an interesting read.
Tags
We allow users who reach trust level one to tag their own posts and users who reach trust level three are able to create new tags. My team also tag peoples posts and create new tags on a regular basis.
For anyone wondering what tags are available, check this list. If you have suggestions for new tags, feel free to mention @Nyx1819 and I can add them.
Duplicate/Wrong Category Threads
You are more than welcome to send @moderators a forum PM if you find a duplicate thread or a thread that is in the wrong category. I suggest flagging these posts because a flagged post shows up differently to a private email or an @mention both of which show up as a normal notification on your profile avatar.
As an example, I woke up this morning to 25+ notifications, these were a mix or private messages, replies, bookmarks, @mentions, likes and other notifications. In the time it took me to go through that list of notifications, I had two or three reports get flagged. Each of these reports got locked at before I continued with my notification feed.
If you do decide to flag something as a duplicate, or in the wrong location select the ‘Other’ reason and provide a message.
I hope that helps.
Dude, it’s 2020, the internet has been around for a while and so have forums… People won’t search as it’s inconvenient. That ship has sailed!
In all seriousness I wish the titles were a bit more descriptive and we use tags more. Used search before and it’s not great esp when you don’t know the exact words to look for
I’ve been on forums since 1997 and experienced all levels of moderation. Perhaps it is a generational thing worldwide, i.e., times have changed in the 2020’s, etc. But forums that are more organized and in which users are actually “trained” to search and not duplicate threads end up being better for everyone: people with a question can better find an answer in an organized fashion and people who want to be helpful don’t have to waste time repeating themselves. I guess people who don’t want to be helpful for failing to search can just have their posts moved or get a reply linked to an existing thread or not get a reply at all. I know that I’m guilty of not searching as thoroughly as I should - will try to do better in future.
I think the advantage of searching is that you discover things that you might not have thought of or that someone who just answers your post straightaway might not have thought to refer you to. So perhaps if the BENEFITS to the user of searching were advertised to people who didn’t search as much as they might have before they posted, they’ll see the “light,” too. JMHO.
A synonym list would still help people creating new tags to avoid duplicating an already existing tag with another word of similar meaning for the same general purpose. Don’t know how to implement but especially since words to express a similar meaning don’t all occur at the same place in an alphabetical list, a way of finding out if there’s an existing word for the meaning/purpose you want to tag would save a LOT of searching for a tag, whether you’re just using a tag or seeking to create one de novo for the forum.
Just kidding here but just like teenage would-be grocery store clerks before they’re hired have to demonstrate suitable knowledge of what foods and goods are on what aisles of the store, maybe no one gets tagging privileges until they can recite a list of all the forum tags and what they’re used for! 
That is more or less the reason we choose to limit the creation of tags to Trust Level 3 and forum staff. The tag box provides autocomplete suggestions so that should help users.
There might be a Discourse plugin that provides those sorts of features, it is something we could look at in the future.
Welcome to the internet, since the 1990s people on forums post first whilst ignoring the search function, people generally moan more on forums, a polite post is not gonna change anything - trust me!
In the early 2000’s I was a member of several pdaPhoneHome forums on Verizon Windows Mobile smartphones. The moderators there were particularly brutal. If you ignored their advice to search and find a related thread, after a while they just deleted a non-compliant user’s posts left and right - I am not recommending that policy for this forum. But it was amazing how fast new users caught the “religion.” And it worked, too, because the forum was run by IT experts on the Verizon network and Windows Mobile smartphones and no one wanted to be cut off from an endless supply of great tips, priceless help when you were in dire need, and new Windows Mobile images for your smartphone model well ahead of their GA release. It was a very live, fun forum, and no one wanted to be sent to the woodshed!
Edit_Update: Two other things on pdaPhoneHome forums, especially with that one forum in particular. The order of threads/categories was highly controlled. The first thing any user, even an experienced user, saw was a set of Wiki threads on the setup and management of the device the forum was about. Don’t remember exactly where relative to the Wiki but there were “stickies” so important announcements or threads with important discussion would get stuck to the top and “unstuck” later as their importance receded into the past. Then the threads themselves were or could be threaded by who you were replying to - a tree structure, essentially-the user had his choice of views. So the moderators allowed a thread to go off on related subtopics and if you weren’t interested in that subtopic, you could just skip to the next major branch within the overall thread - it helped keep several subconversations from getting interwoven-but there must be a reason that forum style is less popular these days. I thought the Wiki’s, the Stickies, and the threading within threads helped users see organization, follow and try to be organized themselves. I think the funny thing is that a forum like a Discourse-based one is counting more on Search for “organization” but if users don’t use Search to self-organize their input …
As usual the forum police are out in force! The search function is often useless for specific things it has to be said. If you see a subject repeated then just skip over it…it’s that easy : )
I guess Google is proof of the ultimate utility of a Search function on the Internet - made them rich - perhaps the search functions on forums often just aren’t powerful enough (although the Discourse search function has “advanced” options and search-within-topic options). But advising someone to find stuff on the Internet overall by just skipping over anything they’ve already read ain’t gonna work too well - same for a forum of any size - but maybe time is not a precious commodity on social forums? - I think the basic problem is one of herding cats, search function or no search function!
Hello Freddy. My name is George. My question is this. Why do I have to load my disk from MSFS Deluxe Edition to get MSFS2020 to Start?